Genesis Chapter 38 is an astoundingly trashy story regarding
one of the Judeo-Christian Patriarchs – Judah – and his widowed
daughter-in-law, Tamar (disguised as a prostitute), and how they came to have
sex and spawn the lineage that would one day include kings David and Solomon,
and, eventually, Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus.
You know, typical Biblical family values.
This story is timely, however, for what happens before Judah impregnates his
daughter-in-law.
Judah has three sons. The oldest, efficiently named Er, marries Tamar, but dies before any
children are born. Now, as is standard practice in traditional Biblical
marriage, Judah’s second son, Onan,
must impregnate his sister-in-law, so she can have (hopefully) a son to gain
claim to an inheritance and keep Er’s lineage going; also protecting Tamar, who, as a
woman, cannot own property or fend for herself in that ancient world. Again, traditional
Biblical family values.
Onan is powerfully attracted to Tamar, but sees that
providing offspring for his dead brother will only weaken his own holdings, so:
he spilled his semen on the ground
whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring
to his brother. What he did was
displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and He put him to death…(Genesis
38:9-10, NRSV).
Now the rest of the story is well worth reading, but I’m
stopping here, as this is a root of a current kerfuffle in our nation: birth
control. I do not wish to argue about whether a corporation owned by a
religious institution can be forced to partially underwrite coverage/care that
is in direct opposition to the religious teachings of that corporation’s
owners. I would tend to tread veeeery carefully with such an issue. Instead,
I’d like to tweak a bit the “Biblical basis” some bandy about regarding this
particular conflict.
The Sin of Onan
One thing I love about the Bible is the fact that it refuses
to sugar-coat human behavior. Onan is a first-class jerk, taking advantage of a
woman’s dire predicament to slake his lust without offering her deliverance
from her troubles through impregnation – which is the justice principal
underlying the whole sordid tale. Onan, through his manipulation of the law for
his own gain, gets what he wants but leaves the woman as vulnerable as ever.
In December, 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission ruled that failure to cover contraceptives for women violated the
1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which was itself an amendment to Title VII
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Now the Department of Health and Human Services
has ruled that birth control must be covered in most insurance policies without
additional cost (pleasepleaseplease note that this is not precisely the
same as “free” or “paid for by the church.”)
It can be argued persuasively that the relatively new-found
ability of women to plan when they will get pregnant makes them (and their children) less vulnerable in society: empowering them socially, culturally, politically and economically in ways
that Tamar, Onan, Judah and the writer of Genesis could never have imagined. Therefore, the modern “Sin of Onan” in this case may
not be denying the 21st century Tamar the right to a child, but,
ironically, insisting she pay extra beyond her already rising health insurance
premiums to determine when and with whom she will have that child.
I’m just saying.
